FONTANA, Calif. -- Two veteran drivers and ex-teammates made rookie mistakes in Sunday's Pepsi 500 at Auto Club Speedway. The second one, which seriously damaged both the car and that driver's Chase hopes, allowed the driver who made the first one to recover enough to keep his championship changes alive.

Denny Hamlin's decision to sweep across the nose of Juan Montoya's car on a restart with 60 laps to go may have ended his Chase hopes. But the resulting caution flag may have saved Tony Stewart's, after he lost a lap after speeding on pit road.

“

We had a good enough car to get back. This team never quits. It never has and it never will.

”

-- TONY STEWART

"I don't care what it takes," Stewart said. "I don't care if we have to go 12 laps down and have the right side knocked off of it, if it gets us a top-five at the end of the day, that is what we have to do the rest of the season."

Tony Stewart was in the thick of contention when the leaders began heading for pit road service under green with fewer than 100 laps to go. But while the others pitted without incident, Stewart was caught by NASCAR officials for a speeding penalty exiting pit road. That required a snail's crawl back down the pit lane while the rest of the field was circling the track at speed, leaving Stewart more than a lap behind the leaders in 30th position.

"We just lost so much track position and we had to fight to get it back," Stewart said.

A debris caution on Lap 186 allowed Stewart to stay out and get waved around the pace car, putting him back on the lead lap. But he was still mired deep in the pack, running 24th and needing one more miracle. That came seconds after the green flag dropped, as Hamlin tried to duck in front of Montoya and instead wound up sliding backwards through the infield grass, ricocheting off the infield wall and inflicting heavy damage to his No. 11 Toyota.

Worse was the fact that Hamlin's team had just completed a sterling stop that put him out front for the first time in 50 laps.

"I just made a rookie mistake," Hamlin said. "I thought I was clear and I misjudged it. I've got to apologize to the team. They deserve better than that. They got me out front. It was a bad mistake."

While Hamlin drove his car immediately into the garage area -- eventually settling for a 37th-place finish and a 219-point deficit heading into next week's race at Charlotte, Stewart's outlook suddenly became as bright as the sun shining down on a perfect California fall day.

Stewart took advantage of an opportunity to pit under caution. This time, he stayed under the speed limit -- and wound up running some of his fastest laps of the day once the race went green. In fact, he took the lead on Lap 229 under another round of green-flag stops and at one point was ahead by some 15 seconds.

However, he knew he also needed one more stop. And on Lap 234, Stewart headed for service. That's when good fortune once again smiled on the No. 14 Chevrolet as a debris caution flew one lap later.

"We got a couple of really lucky breaks that helped us there at the end, getting us back on the lead lap," Stewart said. "And when we were on the pit lane there and got the caution, it got us a little bit of that track position back."

A pair of late-race multiple-car accidents moved Stewart back into the top 10, and he chased down David Ragan following the final restart to finish fifth and stay within 84 points of Jimmie Johnson with six races remaining in the Chase.

"We had a good enough car to get back," Stewart said. "We just could not get going at the beginning of a run for anything. It took us six or eight laps to get going, every time.

"This team never quits. It never has and it never will."